Love Letters
by Screaming Faeries
Summary: Rita only has eyes for her Ravenclaw boyfriend, Gilderoy. Bellatrix works out a sneaky plan to change that.


"Bellatrix Black!"

The yell came from an infuriated Rita Skeeter, who was Bellatrix's fellow sixth-year Slytherin. However, the two had never really spoken. They maintained different friend circles—Bellatrix didn't hang around with the other Slytherin girls, preferring the company of the boys, and Rita spent almost all of her time with her face in a sheaf of parchment, her quill scribbling manically. That, or she was pining after her Ravenclaw boyfriend, Gilderoy Lockhart.

It had only been in recent years that Bellatrix had started to wonder if a friendship with Rita might not be so bad. The girl was maddening, with her gossipy ways and irksome personality, but there was something about her that intrigued Bellatrix.

So when the platinum-haired girl burst into the dormitory, clutching a scrunched-up envelope in her fist, Bellatrix smirked.

"Rita Skeeter." Bellatrix sat down heavily on her bed and watched as a red-faced tornado flew towards her and thrust out the envelope. "What's this?"

She asked as a pleasantry more than anything. Bellatrix already had a good idea what it was.

Rita dropped the envelope with an air of disgust onto Bellatrix's lap. "I found _this _with my mail this morning. It seems as though my boyfriend sent this to me by mistake."

Bellatrix refrained the urge to cackle with glee. Of course that miserable fool had made such a classic mistake, and so quickly! She gingerly plucked the letter out of the envelope and began to read:

_Beautiful Bellatrix,_

_I was simply enamoured by our meeting at the weekend. Oh, the secrets the dark shadows of the Founders' Tapestry now holds... _

_I cannot wait for more passionate and illustrious meetings between us. I suggest we next partake in a rendezvous in the Hogwarts Kitchen, late at night when the Elves are in bed. I long for nothing more than to devour the sweet taste of maple syrup from the porcelain skin behind your earlobes…_

_I'm getting ahead of myself, dear one. Meet me tonight by the kitchen portrait. _

_G. L_

Bellatrix wrinkled her nose, nauseated by the revolting love letter. Rita looked confused by her expression. "Did you know Gilderoy had a girlfriend?" she demanded, trying to maintain her confidence. "Because if you didn't, he's cheated on you too."

"Oh, no," Bellatrix replied in a mock sad tone. "Whatever will we do? Perhaps we should both dump him and elope. There's solidarity in solid women." Her voice dropped to a purr, and she winked at Rita.

Rita flushed as crimson as her lipstick. "How can you suggest such a thing?" she placed a hand on her chest dramatically.

Bellatrix rolled her dark eyes and sighed, throwing her hands up in the air. "Oh, for Merlin's sake, I can't go on like this," she snapped. "Your boyfriend is _not _having an affair." She paused. "Well, I suppose he did, but it's not like you think. I came up with the whole thing so that you'd dump him."

Rita blinked, surprisingly speechless, and waited for Bellatrix to continue.

"I seduced him during a trip to Hogsmeade. It was surprisingly easy, you know. I didn't expect him to be so...pliable to my allure, but it only proves the lack of respect he has for you. I let him whisk me off to the tapestry in the evening, and he kissed me," she shuddered. "That was all. I told him to write to me when he wanted to meet again. I didn't expect him to fail so miserably so quickly."

"Fail...meet again...I'm so…"

Bellatrix stood up and threw the letter to the other side of the room. "I used Lockhart, easily and wonderfully," she smirked. "He played my game _exactly _how I wanted him to, and led you right here to me."

"You...you don't want _me?" _

"Don't tell me what I want and don't want." Bellatrix raised a hand and cupped Rita's pale cheek. "I've longed for this moment for some years. But I will wait." She dropped her hand. "You'll need time to recover from that buffoon, but I'll be here waiting." She fell back onto her bed, running her hands over the emerald green bedspread.

Rita opened and closed her mouth a few times, resembling a goldfish, and her horn-rimmed glasses appeared to have steamed up, before she flushed once again and dashed out of the dormitory.

Bellatrix smirked as she stared after her housemate. She was sure Rita would return.

* * *

**Written For: **

Meet Cute March Day #6: B contacts A after finding out they are being cheated on by the same C.

Assignment #5/Media Studies Task #5 #lifeforlike: Write about a character having a crush and acting on it.

Writing Club/Character Appreciation: 27. (trait) Confident

Writing Club/Showtime: 8. Cry for Me – (word) Fool

Writing Club/Elizabeth's Empire: 4. (plot point) an affair

Writing Club/Liza's Loves: 7. Love Note - Write about someone writing a love-note

Writing Club/Bex's Basement: 19. "Don't tell me what I want and don't want."

Writing Club/Trope of the Month: 8. (word) Passionate

Winter Seasonal/Colour Prompts: 1. Emerald Green

Winter Seasonal/Slytherin Prompts: 24. Bellatrix Lestrange

Supernatural Club: 34. (scenario) Being used by another person

Crazy Cone Contraptions: 23. Banging Broccoli Surprise - (emotion) disgust

Wacky Wandmakers: Wood Type 11. (restriction) No Gryffindors, Core Type 13. (character) Bellatrix Lestrange

Fortnightly Events/Mario Day: 26. (action) Yelling

**Word Count: **735


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